It’s a cracking way to tell truth about Jesus

It’s easy to get upset when Easter traditions replace Christ but no one asks angry people for good news, writes Phil Worthington

Looking ahead to Easter you might be wondering how to share the gospel when truth and tradition are increasingly confused.

One recent cartoon showed the Easter story in a future museum ‒ displaying an Easter egg on the cross! So, how do we ensure that the really good news of Easter isn’t replaced with magical bunnies dropping chocolate eggs?

The New Testament shows Jesus as the fulfilment of beloved traditions. After all, if Jesus really “is before all things, and in him all things hold together,” (Colossians 1:17) then we can point to him using any of God’s creation. So, in Acts 17:23 Paul uses the Athenians’ altar “to an unknown god” to talk about the real God.

The early church took the pagan festival celebrating ‘Eostre’ ‒ goddess of love, resurrection, new life and rebirth ‒ and showed people Jesus. ‘Easter’ itself, as well as eggs and rabbits are not hijacked Christian traditions, they are worldly things we use to show Christ.

It’s easy to get upset when people replace Jesus with a magic rabbit, but no one asks angry people for good news. In 1 Peter 3:15 we read: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who ASKS you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

The key is to be so filled with his hope that people ask us why, then we can joyfully and creatively use worldly traditions to point to Jesus.

I’ve run multiple Easter services, been in some slightly dodgy Passion plays (Jesus once nearly lost his trousers while being crucified!) and organised ‘walks of witness’. Those things are good and important, but none of them engage non-Christians like an annual Easter Egg Hunt.

The best location is a local park ‒ not everyone will go into church. I ask the local Council’s permission, who happily promote it for free ‒ they’ve even bought the chocolate! Hidden plastic eggs lead to Bible-based craft activities and bowls of chocolate to keep kids motivated, they then get part of a ‘secret message’. Eventually they have four different Bible crafts plus the whole message ‒ John 3:16.

Their reward is a ‘Real Easter Egg’ (another gospel message), and an invitation to Easter events at church. We’ve had up to 150 children, and their parents enjoy free hot drinks and friendly chat, so they often willingly accept the church invitation.

I’ve given spare Easter eggs to teenagers skating by, prayerfully to a lady at the bus stop, and blessed a local residential home – some residents hadn’t had Easter eggs for decades. In fact, you could just skip the egg hunt entirely and simply do that!

But whatever you do, the key is not to just share chocolate but also HOPE and JOY. The chocolate isn’t the message, it just opens the door. Share chocolate with people and they will thank you, but share hope with people and they will ask you where it came from – then you can share some REALLY good news.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.